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Must See Movie...

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

. . . and again during its animated short, HAIR-RAISING HARE, which packs more twists and turns into a running time of less than eight minutes than many of today's bloated two-hour-plus live-action features, such as THE REVENANT. Leonardo Di Caprio's REVENANT character cannot think outside his box like Bugs, or else he would have mollified his bosom buddy grizzly bear with a manicure, as Bugs does with the Red Wookie ("Gossamer" to some) about to eat him. Though the female rabbit in HAIR-RAISING HARE is just a robot, she seems more Real than the Women of REVENANT. When Bugs charges his monster as the train engineer piloting a sturdy jousting horse with a 40-foot lance, the action seems more exciting than Di Caprio and his screen nemesis (the Gay gangster from LEGEND) wrestling in the snow. THE REVENANT is virtually devoid of comic relief, unlike HARE, which is marked by Bugs' many impersonations of Groucho Marx. (Bugs stealing towels at Evil Scientist Hotel also is a real hoot.) It's hard to remember a minute of that Spanish Realism Fantasy flick THE REVENANT which rings true; the emotional ups and downs we experience in HARE are true-to-life in comparison.

Directed by Chuck Jones, "Hare-Raising Hare" is a super Bugs Bunny cartoon appropriate for the Halloween season. The wascawwy wabbit gets lured into a haunted house where a mad scientist (a caricature of Peter Lorre) unleashes a hairy orange monster with tennis shoes (later named Gossamer). Bugs outwits the monster as nobody else can, all the while employing Groucho Marx's famous crouch-walk.My favorite sequences from "Hare-Raising Hare": The funniest scene in the whole short is that of Bugs adopting a beautician's accent while giving the hairy monster a manicure. When Bugs first spots the monster, he holds up a sign that reads "YIPE!" as he convulses. Bugs pauses from escaping the monster to ask if there's a doctor in the house; a man in the audience acknowledges himself as a doctor, and Bugs can only respond with a friendly, casual "Eh, what's up, Doc?" The monster's own mirror reflection screams in horror and runs away.I simply cannot conclude this commentary for "Hair-Raising Hare" without acknowledging the outstanding composing/arranging capabilities of Carl W. Stalling. If you're an old popular song buff like I am, you need only to listen to Stalling's cartoon scores in order to pick out familiar melodies. Among the songs I recognize in this cartoon are "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" as Bugs dances away in his lamp disguise; a distorted version of "Oh! You Beautiful Doll" for the mechanical female rabbit; "California, Here I Come" as Bugs stuffs a suitcase in preparing to depart the haunted house; and the Light Cavalry Overture as Bugs engineers a suit of armor on horseback like a locomotive.

Hair-Raising Hare (1946)*** (out of 4)Fun Merrie Melodies short has Bugs Bunny being lured into a creepy castle where a mad scientist wants to feed him to a large, red-headed monster. This film was semi remade six years later as WATER, WATER EVERY HARE and I enjoyed that one more. That doesn't mean this one isn't any good but it is a case where I prefer the remake. With that said, this one here spoofs the horror genre fairly well with the mention of Dracula and Frankenstein. The best thing is the mad scientist, which is a carbon copy of the great Peter Lorre. Another plus is good ol' Bugs who is full of great one-liners and some fun action.

Hair-Raising Hare was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon short directed by Chuck Jones that featured an all-red-haired monster that scared Bugs and wanted to eat him. He is usually named Gossamer though in Water, Water, Every Hare, he was Rudolph. The rabbit goes out of his hole and asks, "Do you ever get the feeling you was being watched?" We pull back and see he's being seen on a televisor by an Evil Scientist (which appears in neon lights on his castle) who looks like Peter Lorre. He brings a female rabbit robot to lure Bugs inside. Bugs follows her and after he's locked in, kisses her who then falls apart. Lorre then intros him to the monster. There's lots of fun here as Bugs turns into a gossipy manicurist filing the monster's nails, then he later pokes his eyes twice, then the monster gets scared twice: first by reflection, then by the audience. "People!" LOL! All in all, Hair-Raising Hare is a hilariously atmospheric cartoon.